Dark Smile
by BlackWolfHowling
Summary: DISCONTINUED PENDING REWRITE
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own Touched By an Angel or any songs used in this chapter._

Tess, Andrew, and Monica were standing outside a church one Sunday morning.

"So, our assignment is a believer?" Monica asked.

"Yes. All of God's children go through the same problems, though some say that believers in the Son don't. Some people say it's the _believers_ who are our toughest assignments. Our job is to help a girl who, oh, there she is." Tess said, pointing to a blue mini-van that held a family of five.

"That's Lisa, the youngest. The one with the black hair and eyes. She's your assignment, Monica, Andrew is their as support. Mine is the parents. With their busy schedules, they don't have much time for their children, Lisa, Susan- the middle Child- and Tiffany-the oldest."

"Andrew, is one of them going to die?"

"Well, your job is to prevent that from happening, but yes, one of them might die."

"It's your job, too, angel boy."

"Why is Kathleen here?" Monica asked, having just spotted the fallen angel.

"Her job is the opposite of ours. But the family is safe for now, let's attend the service." Tess said.

This church had been blessed with a pastor who knew what he was talking about. And Lisa and her family also seemed to know what the pastor was talking about, following along in their Bibles diligently, Lisa trying to find every verse the pastor mentioned, with limited success.

"Now then, the Beldon family has prepared something for us while the ushers collect offering." The pastor said and Lisa and her family stood up. They sang the song 'Go Light Your World' by Kathy Troccoli.

"That family has lovely singers in it. What a great gift God has given them."

"God gives wonderful gifts to all his children, Miss Wings." Tess said. "But Lisa's most important gifts right now are her friends. They'll be helping us by simply being there for her. She might confide in them where she might not confide in you two."

"Why are you assigned to the parents?" Andrew asked. From what he could see, that family got along well enough.

"My job is to show them the importance of their family, and that they need to focus more on their children then their job. Now then, we should wait for them at their house."

_At the house_

"I didn't know we had visitors." Lisa said. As the family of five exited the car.

"You two must be Monica and Andrew." Mr. Beldon said, shaking hands with them. "Girls, these two are going to take care of you three and the house while we're away. You got our note about the rules? We need to be going."

"Yes, but just to make sure I've got it right, we are to ignore their rooms and when Lisa and Susan are at their activity on Saturdays give them a break from chores?"

"Yes, and they can have pizza on Fridays, it's all in the list." Mr. Beldon said, looking at his watch.

"We don't need baby-sitters." Lisa said.

"Since you three are too lazy to take care of the house on your own, we had to hire some help." Mrs. Beldon said, a hint of iron in her voice, and the girls shrank back, Lisa and Susan taking a step backwards.

"You told them about praying before we eat?" Lisa asked.

"We already do that. And, we hear ya go to church?"

"Take them if you can, we have to be going." Mr. Beldon said.

"Hold it. My name is Tess, I believe I called you about observing you two at work and at home and taking notes?"

"Yes, hello, hop in, we need to go. Oh, yes, Lisa and Susan have guests coming over to help with their activity."

"And what is that activity?" Monica asked.

"Colorguard." Lisa answered excitedly as another car pulled into the driveway. "Oh, their are Brad and Emma. We'll meet you out back!"

After roughly half an hour, lunch was ready, and when Monica went to tell them, she found them enjoying a game of sorts where they tried to make the flag material stay on the top of the pole and then saying 'so-and-so's sailed!' triumphantly if they succeeded.

"Are you four hungry?" Monica asked.

"Because we just finished preparing it." Andrew spoke up from behind Monica.

"Where'd he come from?" Lisa said, startled by his sudden appearance.

"Sorry, I'm pretty quiet at times." Andrew said with a smile, grinning even more when Lisa declared a race to the door, which she lost saying 'tall people' to Brad and Emma.

At five the two had to leave, but that was fine since the Beldon's as well as Andrew and Monica had to leave for church soon after.

"She seems to be happy enough." Monica told Andrew.

"Yes, she's very good at hiding her problems, and that is probably going to turn out to be her biggest problem." Monica didn't see it yet, but when he looked at Lisa, instead of the bright, cheerful sixteen year old, he saw a girl in tears, holding a knife and looking ready to use it.

_AN: I based most of the characters in this off of real people, so I don't own them, either, but I do own Mr. and Mrs. Beldon, because I don't know any adults who are like that. :P Oh, and y'all are welcome to tell me that this story's bad. I'll still keep writing it._


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: I've been told that the knife thing was slightly out-of-the-blue, so I'll explain it. Their are three reasons it happened: A) It's a symbol of the depression, she hasn't actually picked up a blade, I'd tell it if it had. B) I figured that, as the Angel of Death, Andrew would be able to see what Lisa was going through easier, and sooner than the others, artistic license. C) I couldn't think of any other way to end the chapter._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Touched by an Angel, or the characters I based off of real people._

* * *

The weekend that Andrew and Monica came was a long one for the Beldon children. They enjoyed the privileges of staying up late and sleeping in. By noon, though, they were all up, and Lisa and Susan were in the yard going over what they had reviewed with Brad and Emma the day before.

"Are your friends coming over again today?" Andrew asked, coming over.

"Look out!" Lisa yelled as a toss went poorly and headed straight for Andrew, who caught the flag and gave it back. "Good catch…I want to say 'Mr. Andrew', but that sounds weird."

"Just 'Andrew' is fine, Lisa." He replied with a smile.

"Where's Miss Monica?" She asked, not answering his comment about what to call him.

"Why so formal? First names are fine."

"Yes, sir."

"We'll work on it." He said smiling. "How long have you and your sister been doing this?" He asked, motioning toward the flags.

"About three years, Andrew." She answered, smirking at the end of that statement when she said his name. She was being cheeky and she knew it. To hide the smirk, she turned towards her sister, noting that she had skipped two counts. "It's a pull hit first!" She said, ignoring Andrew for the moment.

"Thanks. By the way, _you're_ supposed to catch the flag, not Andrew." Susan said, grinning at her sister's surprise that was quickly covered up with annoyance. Lisa didn't know that she had seen the toss gone awry.

"I hadn't counted on the wind." She said defensively.

"May we watch?" Monica asked, walking up to them. They were careful not to appear suddenly anymore, as these kids were very observant.

"Well, we don't have any music, and we're not very good at this. You'd be better off watching Brad and Emma." Lisa said.

"But they aren't here, and you two are. May we watch?" Monica repeated, genuinely curious about what Lisa and Susan seemed to love doing.

Lisa and Susan exchanged glances before Susan spoke up.

"Fine, but you have to watch from over there." She said before pointing to a group of trees that were about five feet away. Lisa vigorously agreed.

Smiling, Andrew and Monica obliged.

"Hey, where's Tiffany?" Lisa asked, looking at Monica, realizing that she hadn't seen her oldest sibling all day. Tiffany may not be involved in color guard, but Lisa looked up to her, and on occasion would ask for Tiffany to watch her practice in the yard. Her sister may not know the fine details of color guard, but she did know when something looked bad, and wasn't afraid to say so.

"I believe she's on her computer."

"Figures." She said before she and her sister counted off.

"Five…six! Five, six, seven, eight!"

With that they started to work. Alternately, they would fall out and come back in. Both girls carried looks of concentration plastered across their faces. After about a minute and a half, they stopped, looked at each other as if they were looking for confirmation about them being done.

"That's all we have so far." Susan said.

After she said that, Andrew and Monica both applauded.

"Good job. The help you two got yesterday from your friends seems to have paid off." Monica said, remembering that before the game they were working very hard.

"Talented singers and athletes, I'm impressed." Andrew said, walking over to Monica.

"How would you know that?" Lisa asked, embarrassed by the applause.

"Oh, we heard people talking about it last night. A small group of people saw us come in with you and we started talking. One of them, an adult named Michelle, mentioned that you and your family sang that morning during service." Lisa nodded, accepting the explanation.

"That sounds like something our Bible quiz instructor would do." She said, looking vaguely annoyed with Michelle.

"Bible quiz?" Monica asked.

"Oh, sorry. We thought you knew about that. Bible quiz is where a small group of teenager from a bunch of different churches get together and compete against each other to see who knows the most about a certain book or books of the Bible. It's a lot of fun." Susan said.

"By the way, the people you were talking to exaggerated our singing talents. As for color guard, we're not very good yet." Lisa added.

"Sure you are. I wouldn't be able to do that." Monica said, pointing to their flags.

"Although she did do gymnastics once." Andrew said.

"That's a slightly different sport." Lisa said with a smile. Really the only thing she could see that color guard and gymnastics had in common were stretches. "As for not being able to do color guard, it's not that hard. At least, not the basics," Lisa said. Taking note, she amended his previous statement. "Scratch that, at first even the basics aren't all that basic."

With that, she and Susan went over some of the rougher parts of their routine. "It's definitely a money-hand toss, two counts to go to right shoulder, one count of holding, and then a peggy toss." Lisa insisted.

"No, it's two counts to right shoulder and then do a peggy toss immediately." Susan said, just as adamantly.

"Is there that big a difference?" Monica asked.

The Irish angel could not help but wonder why the two were getting so competitive about this.

"With six foot poles with a big piece of fabric on 'em? Yeah, it is." Lisa said.

"Even half a count ahead or behind is a big deal." Susan added. Both girls grimaced slightly as they remembered the many times their instructors had gotten on to them for being off. It was generally because they were late. "Oh, yeah, Lisa, your planes are still off."

"Fix your horizontal and then we'll talk about my planes." Lisa answered, grinning.

"What are you two talking about?" Andrew asked. These terms were starting to confuse him, and it didn't seem that an explanation would come unless he asked.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot you two have no idea what we're talking about." Lisa said, grinning apologetically. "Okay, do you want an explanation of the terms Susan and I used or an explanation of everything we know?"

"Just the terms you two used. If we have any more questions, we'll ask." Monica said.

"Okay, I think the first term I used was a pull hit." Lisa paused, looking to Susan for help. Color guard was easier to do than teach.

"Basically it's exactly what it sounds like. You hold the pole with the flag down, one hand at the tab, the other hand at the tape."

"The tab is the piece of tape at the bottom of the flag material, called the silk. One of two pieces of tape that keep it from sliding on the pole. The tape is a piece of tape roughly in the middle of the pole. It's a reference for us so we know where to put our hands so we're the same." Lisa explained quickly, shooting an irritated look at her sister.

"As I was saying, to do a pull hit, one hand is on the tab, the other hand is on the tape. You pull the flag pole to make it rotate, preferably using the same amount of force with both hands, and when the rotation's finished, you catch it in the same position that you started in. The catch is called the 'hit'."

"And what are counts?" Andrew asked, remembering that term from earlier.

"Everything you do with a flag takes a certain amount of time." Lisa said, looking at Andrew as if this should be obvious, which to her it was, now at least. When she first started, she was as confused as he was. "Anyway, the amount of time it takes is called a 'count'. It's basically a beat. A pull hit takes two beats, or counts, to make a full rotation. So we count it in twos when we do several in a row."

"And you mentioned a money-hand toss, drop spins, and a peggy toss?" Monica said, looking very confused at the last thing she mentioned.

"A money-hand toss is where you have the pole at the tab and tape, with the silk up. The hand at the tab is held palm up, like you're asking for money. The top hand pulls down while the bottom hand lifts up and releases. You catch with your hands in the same position, only higher up. The top hand is now in the silk, and the bottom hand is at the tab, and also not palm up." Susan explained, looking at her sister as if to say 'you're explaining the rest'.

"A drop spin is easy. You have one hand at the tab, the other at the far end cap, the end caps are at either end of the flag pole. To do it, your top hand lowers the flag, while your bottom hand releases the cap and grabs the flag at the tab on the top. Then the process repeats, just lower." Lisa said, feeling that they weren't giving very good explanations, but they were doing their best.

"I guess we're alternating explanations." Susan said after her sister had stopped. " A peggy toss is four spins, with one hand at the tab, the other in the middle of the silk. Then it's the same pull and release."

"The reason we're not being very specific with which hand goes where is because everything we do can be done on both sides, so either hand can be at the tab or tape." Lisa said, taking a moment to think. _"I know we mentioned something else."_ Not coming up with it, she looked at Andrew and Monica. "Anything else?"

"Yes, planes and horizontals." Andrew said, remembering the last two terms mentioned.

"Planes is basically the angle of the flag. If the angle is off, you hit yourself." Lisa said, unable to think of a better explanation.

"And a horizontal is the only toss you can do with one hand or two. With one hand it's behind the back, with two it's at your waist. Basically it's a toss that goes flat over your head if it's done right. If it's not, then the toss won't be flat."

"Sorry, it's easier to do than explain." Lisa said with an apologetic smile, fairly certain that Susan had the same headache she did. She never wanted to explain color guard again.

"Your explanations were fine." Andrew said. "You two did the best you could, and you showed us what you were talking about which was a great help."

"The toss that my sister nearly killed you with was a money-hand toss, by the way." Susan told Andrew, poking fun at her sister, a rare thing for her.

"It's his fault. He saw us practicing and shouldn't have just walked over here without warning." Lisa said, hiding her relief when Andrew smiled at her, letting her know that it was fine.

"Why don't you two come in for lunch? After such a work-out, you must be hungry." Monica suggested, trying to ease the tension between the two siblings..

"Yes, ma'am." Lisa and Susan replied in unison.

"Polite, aren't they?" Monica asked Andrew with a smile once the two were out of earshot.

"Yes, very formal at times. And then informal at others." Andrew agreed.

Well there's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

I guess not, it's just interesting to see."

"Are you two coming?" Lisa called, not sure why Monica and Andrew were still standing there.

"We're coming!" Andrew called back.

Soon, all four of them were seated around the table and eating left-over roast from last night's dinner.

"So, other than your activity…colorguard?" He got an affirmative nod from the two teenagers and restarted. "Other than colorguard, what do you two like to do?"

"So, other than your activity…colorguard?" He got an affirmative nod from the two teenagers and restarted.

"Other than colorguard, what do you two like to do?"

"Read and write, mainly. But we also do Bible quiz in our church, and the major outreach Harrisburg Invasion. Mainly what we do then is hand out free sodas for a week, to advertise what we do the last day. On the last day of Invasion, we give out free food and have games for people to play. Everything's free, and we have a lot of fun doing it," Susan said, talking quickly towards the end in excitement.

"Pretty much the same for me, just add singing and going to church to that list. Susan probably didn't include those because they're obvious." Lisa said.

"Any friends other than Brad and Emma?" Monica asked.

Susan shook her head, and Lisa nodded. "I talk to people at school a little bit more than she does." Lisa said by way of explanation. "It's because Susan's antisocial."

"That isn't a nice thing to say about your sister." Monica said disapprovingly.

"It's true. But if it makes you feel better, I was only being half serious."

"You know, God gave you two each other as well as your friends. You shouldn't tease them like that, or you might lose them," Andrew said.

"Well, I don't think I could lose my sister, but I'm careful not to toe the line when it comes to teasing my friends. And I certainly don't cross it," Lisa said.

"You may not lose your sister in the literal sense, but you might lose your relationship with her, which is very similar."

"All right, all right, I get it." Lisa said, excusing herself from the table. "I'll be in my room." She said over her shoulder

By this time, Susan had also finished so she, too, went to her room.

"Andrew, how can we help her if she won't talk to us?" Monica asked, distressed.

"She will, Monica, she will. I guess we just have to give her time." Andrew said, trying to offer his friend some comfort.

"You bet you have to give her some time," Tess said. She had appeared in the room and was looking none-too- happy with Monica and Andrew. "The situation may be serious, but it's not critical. Don't try to force her to open up to you. Give her some time."

"We're trying, Tess." Andrew said.

"We didn't think mentioning God was a problem, the two already believe."

"Don't lecture her so much. That girl needs friends, not teachers," Tess said. "Now, I have to get going.

Keep showing an active interest in her activities, but don't pry." With that, she left, as suddenly as she came.

"How serious is the situation, Andrew?"

"Well, going to church yesterday helped her heal somewhat. The problems she has been having seemed a little better a few hours afterwards. Like Tess said, it's serious, but not critical. We can afford to go slowly."

"That's good to hear." Monica said, relieved that there was something that was helping their assignment.

"What do her parents do that makes them so busy all the time?"

They have high-ranking positions in Harrisburg Financial Consulting. Lisa said, getting her glass from earlier and filling it with water. "It keeps them pretty busy, and they sometimes have to travel. I think that that's what they're doing now. I saw bags in the trunk yesterday and didn't hear them come home last night, and I was up for a while." Then she seemed to realize that she had intruded on someone else's conversation. "Sorry to interrupt, I was thirsty and happened to overhear." Andrew and Monica smiled to show that it was fine.

"Do you miss them when they're gone?" Monica asked, keeping in mind both Tess' comments as well as her job as a case worker.

"Sometimes, I guess. They said its important so I suppose it's fine. We're pretty self-sufficient so long as there's food," Lisa said. She drank the rest of her water quickly before returning to the sink to get some more. "Would either of you like some? If so just give me your glass."

"We're fine, thanks." Andrew said. " If you or either of your sisters want to talk, we'd be happy to listen."

"I'll tell them." She said with a brief nod.

"This could be harder than we thought," Andrew said.

Monica nodded worriedly. The fact that going to church helped Lisa was fine, but the angel knew that time was running out.

* * *

_AN: Thanks to Yva J. for agreeing to beta read this. __And I am sorry about the poor explanations for colorguard. It really is easier to do than explain. I also apologize for the long break between updates. I'm a procrastinator so I never sent the revised copy to my beta, so the bad parts are all my fault, and I also have a major league case of writer's block for this. Ideas would be much appreciated._


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